http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060418-110124-3694r.htm
CIA mines 'rich' content from blogs
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
April 19, 2006
President Bush and U.S. policy-makers are receiving more intelligence from open
sources such as Internet blogs and foreign newspapers than they previously did,
senior intelligence officials said.
The new Open Source Center (OSC) at CIA headquarters recently stepped up
data collection and analysis based on bloggers worldwide and is developing new
methods to gauge the reliability of the content, said OSC Director Douglas J.
Naquin.
"A lot of blogs now have become very big on the Internet, and we're getting
a lot of rich information on blogs that are telling us a lot about social
perspectives and everything from what the general feeling is to ... people
putting information on there that doesn't exist anywhere else," Mr. Naquin told
The Washington Times.
Eliot A. Jardines, assistant deputy director of national intelligence for
open source, said the amount of unclassified intelligence reaching Mr. Bush and
senior policy-makers has increased as a result of the center's creation in
November.
"We're certainly scoring a number of wins with our ultimate customer," said
Mr. Jardines, who became the first high-level official in charge of the
government's nonsecret intelligence in December.
"I can't get into detail of what, but I'll just say the amount of open
source reporting that goes into the president's daily brief has gone up rather
significantly," Mr. Jardines said. "There has been a real interest at the
highest levels of our government, and we've been able to consistently deliver
products that are on par with the rest of the intelligence community."
Mr. Naquin said recent OSC successes have included the discovery of a
technology advance in a foreign country. Also, most data on avian flu outbreaks
come from open sources, he said.
"Have we got coups out of it? Close to it," Mr. Naquin said. "But certainly
we've had more insight than we've ever had before."
The OSC uses powerful computers and software technology to "sift" the
Internet for valuable intelligence. It also buys information from commercial
databases.
In the past, open-source reports were used mainly by intelligence analysts.
"But now our customer base literally ranges from the president to local
police departments," Mr. Naquin said. The Fairfax County police use OSC
products, as do police departments in San Diego, New York and Baltimore. The
center also provides support to the U.S. military.
A Defense Department official said Chinese military bloggers have become a
valuable source of intelligence on Beijing's secret military buildup. For
example, China built its first Yuan-class attack submarine at an underground
factory that was unknown to U.S. intelligence until a photo of the submarine
appeared on the Internet in 2004.
The center took over the CIA's Foreign Broadcast Information Service, known
as FBIS, that was formed in 1941 to translate foreign broadcasts.
The OSC is doubling its staff and bringing in material from 32 government
agencies that also produce unclassified reports, Mr. Jardines said.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
***************************************************************************
Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. Menuju Indonesia yg
Lebih Baik, in Commonality & Shared Destiny.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia
***************************************************************************
__________________________________________________________________________
Mohon Perhatian:
1. Harap tdk. memposting/reply yg menyinggung SARA (kecuali sbg otokritik)
2. Pesan yg akan direply harap dihapus, kecuali yg akan dikomentari.
3. Reading only, http://dear.to/ppi
4. Satu email perhari: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
5. No-email/web only: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
6. kembali menerima email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
